Jerry Garcia at Woodstock in 1969 (Photo by Mark Goff)
Hurleyville, NY – By all accounts, when Jerry Garcia and his wildly popular band performed in Sullivan County at a music festival called Woodstock, they blew the gig. It’s not hard to imagine what went wrong - a bad day, things didn’t line up. It happens…
That was 1969.
Miraculously, 12 years later, at a magical little venue called Music Mountain, at the Avon Lodge Hotel in South Fallsburg, something quite different happened. Jerry performed two sets, and this time, by all accounts, he had one of the finest performances of his career. It was June 16, 1982 - the Jerry Garcia Band drew nearly 10,000 fans back to the gentle sloping fields of Sullivan County.
And it rained…
Of his unprecedented success, Jerry Garcia once said, “I feel like I’m sort of stumbling along, and a lot of people are watching me or stumbling along with me or allowing me to stumble for them.”
Responding to this, Mikal Gilmore, writing for Rolling Stone Magazine opined, “It was as if Jerry Garcia - who lived at the center of one of popular culture’s most extraordinary epic adventures - was bemused by the circumstances of his own renown.”
His renown endures, and on Sunday, April 3, from 2-4 p.m., the Sullivan County band Little Sparrow will host a tribute concert to the music of the Jerry Garcia Band. JGB, as the band is referred to by Grateful Dead fans, was a side project for Garcia. Drawing influence from jazz, rock, reggae and soul, they explored a wide range of artists - from the Beatles and Bob Marley to Smokey Robinson and Steve Winwood.
Special guests for the show include Ellen Iovino on vocals and congas, Rounder Recording artist Van Manakas on guitar, and Jeff Anderson on bass. Jeff is known locally for his work with guitarist Slam Allen, but he got his start performing with legends like Ben E. King and Esther Phillips.
The free concert is sponsored by the Sullivan County Historical Society and will be held at the Sullivan County Museum, 265 Main Street, Hurleyville. Donations are appreciated and directly support the musicians. For more info, call 845-434-8044.